Athletics at the 1980 Summer Olympics – Men's 1500 metres

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Men's 1500 metres
at the Games of the XXII Olympiad
Olympic Athletics.png
Olympic Athletics
Venue Lenin Central Stadium
Date30 July 1980 (qualification)
31 July 1980 (semi-finals)
1 August 1980 (final)
Competitors40 from 29 nations
Winning time3:38.4
Medalists
Gold medal icon.svg Sebastian Coe
Olympic flag.svg  Great Britain
Silver medal icon.svg Jürgen Straub
Flag of East Germany.svg  East Germany
Bronze medal icon.svg Steve Ovett
Olympic flag.svg  Great Britain
  1976
1984  
Official Video TV-icon-2.svg
Official Video

The men's 1,500m metres was an event at the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow, Soviet Union. The final was held on Friday 1 August 1980. [1] Forty athletes from 29 nations competed. [2] The maximum number of athletes per nation had been set at 3 since the 1930 Olympic Congress. The event was won by 0.4 seconds by Sebastian Coe of Great Britain, the nation's first championship in the event since back-to-back wins surrounding World War I in 1912 and 1920, and first medal of any color since 1932. East Germany took its first medal in the 1500 metres since starting to compete separately, with Jürgen Straub's silver.

Background

This was the 19th appearance of the event, which is one of 12 athletics events to have been held at every Summer Olympics. None of the 1976 finalists returned, with the American-led boycott keeping out defending champion John Walker of New Zealand as well as top American runner Steve Scott. Those two would have been strong challengers, but a British pair would have been co-favorites anyway. The world record was shared by Steve Ovett and Sebastian Coe, with Coe having a slightly faster time before the rounding required by the rules of the time. The British Olympic Association did not join the boycott, so Ovett and Coe raced in Moscow. [2]

Benin, Botswana, Kuwait, Lesotho, Libya, Mozambique, Sierra Leone, Syria, Vietnam, and Zambia each made their first appearance in the event. Great Britain and France each made their 17th appearance, most of those competing in 1980, though still one fewer than the United States (which had had runners in each of the 18 previous 1500 metres competitions).

Competition format

The competition was again three rounds (used previously in 1952 and since 1964). The "fastest loser" system introduced in 1964 was used for both the first round and semifinals. The 9-man semifinals and finals from 1976 were retained.

There were four heats in the first round, each with 10 or 11 runners (before withdrawals). The top four runners in each heat, along with the next two fastest overall, advanced to the semifinals. The 18 semifinalists were divided into two semifinals, each with 9 runners. The top four men in each semifinal, plus the fastest fifth-placer, advanced to the 9-man final. [2] [3]

Records

These were the standing world and Olympic records prior to the 1980 Summer Olympics.

World recordFlag of the United Kingdom.svg  Sebastian Coe  (GBR)3:32.1 Zürich, Switzerland 15 August 1979
Olympic recordFlag of Kenya.svg  Kip Keino  (KEN)3:34.9 Mexico City, Mexico 20 October 1968

No new world or Olympic records were set during the competition.

Schedule

All times are Moscow Time (UTC+3)

DateTimeRound
Wednesday, 30 July 198017:10Round 1
Thursday, 31 July 198021:00Semifinals
Friday, 1 August 198017:30Final

Results

Round 1

Heat 1

RankAthleteNationTimeNotes
1 José Marajo Olympic flag.svg  France 3:43.9Q
2 Mehdi Aidet Flag of Algeria.svg  Algeria 3:43.9Q
3 Dragan Zdravković Flag of SFR Yugoslavia.svg  Yugoslavia 3:44.0Q
4 Steve Cram Olympic flag.svg  Great Britain 3:44.1Q
5 Pavel Yakovlev Flag of the Soviet Union.svg  Soviet Union 3:44.2
6 José Manuel Abascal Spain Olympic Flag 1980.svg  Spain 3:44.7
7 Mopeli Molapo Flag of Lesotho (1966-1987).svg  Lesotho 3:55.5
8 Khaled Khalifa Al-Shammari Flag of Kuwait (3-2).svg  Kuwait 3:57.6
9 Vicente Santos Flag of Mozambique (1975-1983).svg  Mozambique 3:58.7
Filbert Bayi Flag of Tanzania.svg  Tanzania DNS

Heat 2

RankAthleteNationTimeNotes
1 Andreas Busse Flag of East Germany.svg  East Germany 3:44.3Q
2 Vitaliy Tyshchenko Flag of the Soviet Union.svg  Soviet Union 3:44.4Q
3 Jozef Plachý Flag of Czechoslovakia.svg  Czechoslovakia 3:44.4Q
4 Alex Gonzalez Olympic flag.svg  France 3:44.6Q
5 Pierre Délèze Olympic flag.svg  Switzerland 3:44.8
6 Haile Zeru Flag of Ethiopia (1975-1987).svg  Ethiopia 3:45.7
7 Abderrahmane Morceli Flag of Algeria.svg  Algeria 3:46.0
8 Sant Kumar Flag of India.svg  India 3:55.6
9 Ishmael Mhaladi Flag of Botswana.svg  Botswana 3:59.1
10 George Branche Flag of Sierra Leone.svg  Sierra Leone 4:03.9
11 Damien Degboe Flag of Benin (1975-1990).svg  Benin 4:15.3

Heat 3

RankAthleteNationTimeNotes
1 Vittorio Fontanella Olympic flag.svg  Italy 3:40.1Q
2 Sebastian Coe Olympic flag.svg  Great Britain 3:40.1Q
3 Antti Loikkanen Flag of Finland.svg  Finland 3:40.5Q
4 José Luis González Spain Olympic Flag 1980.svg  Spain 3:40.9Q
5 João Campos Flag of Portugal-1980-Olympics.svg  Portugal 3:41.3q
6 Ray Flynn Olympic flag.svg  Ireland 3:42.0
7 Nigusse Bekele Flag of Ethiopia (1975-1987).svg  Ethiopia 3:45.8
8 Archfell Musango Flag of Zambia (1964-1996).svg  Zambia 3:53.7
9 Tisbite Rakotoarisoa Flag of Madagascar.svg  Madagascar 3:55.9
10 Lê Quang Khải Flag of Vietnam.svg  Vietnam 4:06.8

Heat 4

RankAthleteNationTimeNotes
1 Steve Ovett Olympic flag.svg  Great Britain 3:36.8Q
2 Jürgen Straub Flag of East Germany.svg  East Germany 3:37.0Q
3 Robert Nemeth Flag of Austria.svg  Austria 3:38.3Q
4 Vladimir Malozemlin Flag of the Soviet Union.svg  Soviet Union 3:38.7Q
5 Mirosław Żerkowski Flag of Poland.svg  Poland 3:39.2q
6 Kassa Balcha Flag of Ethiopia (1975-1987).svg  Ethiopia 3:43.1
7 Jón Didriksson Flag of Iceland.svg  Iceland 3:44.4
8 Derradji Harek Flag of Algeria.svg  Algeria 3:45.3
9 Marzouk Mabrouk Flag of Libya (1977-2011).svg  Libya 3:54.3
10 Mohamed Makhlouf Flag of Syria.svg  Syria 4:00.4

Semifinals

Semifinal 1

RankAthleteNationTimeNotes
1 Steve Ovett Olympic flag.svg  Great Britain 3:43.1Q
2 Dragan Zdravković Flag of SFR Yugoslavia.svg  Yugoslavia 3:43.4Q
3 Andreas Busse Flag of East Germany.svg  East Germany 3:43.5Q
4 Steve Cram Olympic flag.svg  Great Britain 3:43.6Q
5 Vladimir Malozemlin Flag of the Soviet Union.svg  Soviet Union 3:43.6
6 Antti Loikkanen Flag of Finland.svg  Finland 3:44.0
7 João Campos Flag of Portugal-1980-Olympics.svg  Portugal 3:44.4
8 Alex Gonzalez Olympic flag.svg  France 3:44.7
9 Mehdi Aidet Flag of Algeria.svg  Algeria 3:44.9

Semifinal 2

RankAthleteNationTimeNotes
1 Sebastian Coe Olympic flag.svg  Great Britain 3:39.4Q
2 Jürgen Straub Flag of East Germany.svg  East Germany 3:39.4Q
3 José Marajo Olympic flag.svg  France 3:39.6Q
4 Vittorio Fontanella Olympic flag.svg  Italy 3:40.1Q
5 Jozef Plachý Flag of Czechoslovakia.svg  Czechoslovakia 3:40.4q
6 Robert Nemeth Flag of Austria.svg  Austria 3:40.8
7 Vitaliy Tyshchenko Flag of the Soviet Union.svg  Soviet Union 3:41.5
8 José Luis González Spain Olympic Flag 1980.svg  Spain 3:42.6
9 Mirosław Żerkowski Flag of Poland.svg  Poland 3:48.2

Final

RankAthleteNationTime
Gold medal icon.svg Sebastian Coe Olympic flag.svg  Great Britain 3:38.4
Silver medal icon.svg Jürgen Straub Flag of East Germany.svg  East Germany 3:38.8
Bronze medal icon.svg Steve Ovett Olympic flag.svg  Great Britain 3:39.0
4 Andreas Busse Flag of East Germany.svg  East Germany 3:40.2
5 Vittorio Fontanella Olympic flag.svg  Italy 3:40.4
6 Jozef Plachý Flag of Czechoslovakia.svg  Czechoslovakia 3:40.7
7 José Marajo Olympic flag.svg  France 3:41.5
8 Steve Cram Olympic flag.svg  Great Britain 3:42.0
9 Dragan Zdravković Flag of SFR Yugoslavia.svg  Yugoslavia 3:43.1

See also

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References

  1. "Athletics at the 1980 Moscow Games: Men's 1500 metres". sports-reference.com. Archived from the original on 17 April 2020. Retrieved 1 November 2017.
  2. 1 2 3 "1500 metres, Men". Olympedia. Retrieved 15 August 2020.
  3. Official Report, vol. 3, p. 33.